Ao Huang, Xin Zhang, Jian Zhou
Department of Liver Surgery and Transplantation, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University; Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion (Fudan University), Ministry of Education; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Biomark Res. 2021 Dec 20;9(1):91. doi: 10.1186/s40364-021-00348-y.
The past years have witnessed the vigorous development of immunotherapy, mainly immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) protein and its ligand, PD-L1, and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4). Indeed, ICIs have largely revolutionized the management and improved the prognosis of patients with intermediate and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, biomarker-based stratification of HCC patients for optimal response to ICI treatment is still of unmet need and again, there exists the necessity to dynamically monitor treatment effect in real-time manner. The role of conventional biomarkers in immunotherapy surveillance is largely limited by spatial and temporal tumor heterogeneity whereas liquid biopsy seems to be promising to circumvent tumor heterogeneity to identify candidate patients who may response to immunotherapy, to dynamically monitor treatment effect and to unveil resistance mechanism. Herein, we provide a thorough review about the potential utility of liquid biopsy in immunotherapy for HCC and discuss its future perspectives.
过去几年见证了免疫疗法的蓬勃发展，主要是针对程序性细胞死亡蛋白1（PD-1）及其配体PD-L1以及细胞毒性T淋巴细胞相关抗原4（CTLA-4）的免疫检查点抑制剂（ICI）。事实上，ICI在很大程度上彻底改变了中晚期肝细胞癌（HCC）患者的治疗管理并改善了其预后。然而，基于生物标志物对HCC患者进行分层以实现对ICI治疗的最佳反应仍未满足需求，而且，实时动态监测治疗效果的必要性依然存在。传统生物标志物在免疫治疗监测中的作用在很大程度上受到肿瘤时空异质性的限制，而液体活检似乎有望规避肿瘤异质性，以识别可能对免疫治疗有反应的候选患者、动态监测治疗效果并揭示耐药机制。在此，我们对液体活检在HCC免疫治疗中的潜在效用进行全面综述，并讨论其未来前景。
